The Worst Kind of Punishment
by ButterflyMouse
Summary: Summary: A Stone Key alternate ending, because somewhere in an alternate dimension of the fictional Obernewtyn universe, this is what actually happened. A one-shot in two parts.
1. Part One

**The worst kind of torture.**

**A/N: Many thanks to Katiefoolery for betaing.**

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_He hesitated. His fist trembled but it did not descend. Rushton gave a groaning cry and seemed to fight with himself, fist still upraised. I dared not move for I had introduced something fragile and random into certainty, and the outcome of this moment was so finely balanced that a single breath would push him to attack._

_Suddenly Rushton dropped to his knees with a horrible half-strangled snarl…_

He lunged at me, knocking me backwards to the ground. Fireworks erupted behind my eyelids as I felt my head crack against the floor. The pain of the blow was intense, I hardly noticed as hands closed around my throat, tightening with enough force to constrict my airway. The instinct to gag was near overpowering, but I resisted.

Instead, I disabled my nerves; simultaneously paralyzing myself and blocking the pain. I had already accepted my fate. I was dead. I just didn't know it yet and I _could not struggle_, because when Rushton came out of this, it was already going to be hard enough for him to heal. The more I struggled, the more he would be hurt.

And Obernewtyn needed him.

It was a strange experience, observing my own murder with none of the pain. Only then did it come to me, as I lay there, watching my love strangle the life from me, that perhaps this was the answer all along. The weaponmachines would still exist, but if Ariel needed me to use them, then removing myself from the equation had to do some good.

Didn't it?

A feeling of peace filled my veins. I had beaten Ariel on my own terms. Rushton would live and heal and the world would go on. I would die, but that was a small price to pay for the lives of those I loved.

I struggled to keep hold of my thoughts as the lower parts of my mind began to dissolve into the mindstream. As ideas and memories began to vanish, I knew that Rushton had done his job. The block between my nerves and me disappeared, but it no longer mattered as I felt myself pulled toward the stream.

And then, only then did he leave me be, as he was pulled away.


	2. Part Two

**The worst kind of torture.**

**A/N: Many thanks to Katiefoolery for betaing.

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I stood on a narrow walkway. Therewere two ways I could go, but hearing a crack and grunting, I ran toward the sound.

_You are needed..._

I ran through several rooms until I was stopped in my tracks, frozen by a sight that will stay with me for the rest of my life, burned forever to the back of my eyelids.

Rushton Seraphim,a man I had long respected, strangling the love of his life to death.

'Lud, man!' I shouted and pulled him off her. He fought me and I struggled to hold him off, but at seeing his bondmate's limp form, he eventually quietened. His actions left little doubt as to what Ariel's true intention had been.

'Elspeth?' I called, knowing she needed help, yet afraid to let go of Rushton.

'Don't...blame...Rushton,' she coughed, 'not...hisfault...Ariel.'

I felt the bile rise in my throat at her words and the blood that splattered her clothes with every breath.

'Please...' She could only whisper now.'Help...Rushton...'

She broke off into a coughing fit and I was horrified at the amount of blood she spat out.

'Obernewtyn...needshim.'

I nodded, and she smiled weakly, moving her eyes drunkenly to Rushton.

'Love you**,**' she whispered, before her eyes glazed over.

Let no one call her heartless again.

With every ounce of life now drained from his beloved, Rushton finally became docile. I loosened my grip on him and, as he made no further movement, let go of him completely.

I hastened to Elspeth. No breath. No pulse. She was gone, and I couldn't stop my eyes from tearing.

Nothing had been able to stop her. Not soldierguards, not herders, not plague, fever, Hedra, blood loss or impossible odds. Yet where all these things failed, her bondmate succeeded. My heart ached at the waste, and I looked up at Rushton. He was staring at her prone form in confusion, as if wondering what had happened.

I cried as he slowly came back to himself. Much as I wanted to shield his eyes from the sight of his beloved, I knew nothing could save him from the horror of what Ariel had made him do.

Instead, I could only stand vigil as my friend slowly returned to sentience.

It seemed to take an age, but eventually a look of grief and shock wrote itself across his face. An instant later, he held her body in his arms, crying out for her to come back. To forgive him. That he was sorry. That he loved her. Had always loved her.

Dameon had been right. I only wished that it had not taken such a tragedy to show it.

I made a promise then, as Rushton's broken sobs wrenched at the night.

Ariel would pay.

**AN: That was Brydda's POV, in case you missed the hint.**


End file.
